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Kenny Kerr
kennykerr.ca · Personal blog · on HN since 2011
Kenny Kerr, a Microsoft engineer and author of C++/WinRT, writes about C++, Rust, and Windows API language bindings.
What HN saysHN commenters cite it for how Microsoft's Rust for Windows crates work, including why windows-sys is large and how Win32 and WinRT are unified.
15HN people shared it
6linked it in comments
26stories submitted
49story points
2 years agolast shared
2011people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Rust/WinRT Coming Soon4 people · 9 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 2State of C++ on Windows3 people · 5 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 3Kenny Kerr (C++/WinRT main author) starts looking into Rust UWP support3 people · 1 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 4C++/WinRT and xlang repos (status update)2 people · 2 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 5Getting Started with Rust/WinRT1 people · 5 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 6Modern C++ as a Better Compiler1 people · 4 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 7Xlang: a cross-language, cross-compiler, cross-platform generalization of WinRT1 people · 4 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 8C++: What does it mean to be constexpr complete?1 people · 3 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 9C++/WinRT: fully open source WinAPI development using C/C++/Rust1 people · 2 points · first shared 2021 · 2 comments on HN
- 10A second dark age for C++1 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · 1 comments on HN
- 11Getting Started with Modules in C++1 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 12Synctools for SysInternals1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 13A Windows Runtime ABI for Modern C++1 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 14The Road To Windows 81 people · 1 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 15Choosing between the windows and windows-sys crates1 people · 1 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
the_mitsuhiko · 2025-02-08
The reason why the windows-sys (and below the windows-targets) crate are so beefy is that they are basically a bunch of binary blobs that are needed to link stuff together due to how import libs work on Windows. https://kennykerr.ca/rust-getting-started/understanding-windows-target…
In theory that would not be necessary any more on more modern rustc versions, but if you want to target rustc < 1.70 you still need that.
mwcampbell · 2021-01-21
Kenny Kerr's blog post on this may also be of interest. In particular, it answers the question I was going to ask about how they're handling Win32 and WinRT in a unified way.
https://kennykerr.ca/2021/01/21/rust-for-windows/
pjmlp · 2020-03-28
Wishes sometime turn into reality.
https://kennykerr.ca/2019/11/05/rust/
https://twitter.com/benwilliamson/status/1240113606374686721
tal8d · 2019-12-03
> I guess shipping Windows API cargo crates makes too much sense. Does anyone have any context for gaps in Rust they are addressing?
I haven't finished digging through the OP, but it looks like a bunch of Microsoft employees (already aware of Rust's safety benefits) have started recognizing the commitment to FFI as well. My last project had a feature that depended on a bind to win32, which turned out to be the most time consuming aspect - as it demanded a bunch of tooling that was otherwise unnecessary (valgrind, etc). If they were to take stewardship of that interface, lots of unsafe{} would disappear overnight.
https://kennykerr.ca/2019/11/05/rust/
jarjoura · 2019-11-10
Looks like Windows will soon be launching a way for Rust to call into their COM UI API platform.
https://kennykerr.ca/2019/11/05/rust/
acqq · 2015-05-16
Which makes me feel I've spent the energy reading about the potential vaporware. Ugh.
The author writes:
http://kennykerr.ca/2014/08/29/a-modern-update/
"I have started using it myself and am really enjoying the experience but it has a few rough edges that I need to work on before I can make it more widely available"
So he has the site about it, writes the articles about it... and it works only for him.